Thursday, December 17, 2009

at the ready

I've been seeing this bike for weeks if not months, always parked on the street in the morning near my commute- always ready and waiting for its owner to get on and go. It has a distinctive shape and grey teal color that always catches my eye.
I finally stopped and took some pictures.

It's an "Aura" not a brand I recognize- I'm guessing that it's an off brand dutch bike that a dutch student brought with them when they came to Boston for school. Somervillian- any ideas?

2 comments:

Cool! I am pretty sure this is an Altra rather than Aura - the stylised lettering is a little confusing. Altra was (still is?) a mid/lower-tier Dutch brand, similar to Union. Looks like an 1980s model to me. I love the colour and the logo; great to know that someone is riding this bike!

no idea on whose it is, but i saw it myself in harvard square last week, as well! initially, the panniers caught my attention. upon closer inspection i realized it was a dutch bike. it appears to use many of the same "off the shelf" parts as my wife's and my own union dutch bikes (fenders, fork crown cover, kickstand, pedals, rack, lugs, skirt guard). it has an interesting mix of parts, some of which my wife's 1973 union has, and some of which my 1986 union has, so i'm going to peg its age at somewhere in between... 1980-ish?

back in the 1970s and 80s, there was a big consolidation of bike brands, and a lot of common sourcing of parts, even entire framesets. especially among the mid to lower tier bikes, many looked identical except for the decal sets.